Portland to see credit card parking meters

PORTLAND, Maine — Residents of and visitors to Maine’s largest city will soon have a new way to pay for parking after Portland installs new parking meters that accept credit and debit cards.

The ‘pay and display’ method, in which drivers pay for parking at a terminal and then leave the receipt on the dashboard, has already been adopted in some of the country’s largest cities.

The Portland Press Herald reports the new meters have increased compliance in Portsmouth, N.H., which has seen revenue from parking tickets drop about 10 percent since the new meters were installed. “You don’t want to be making revenue from making people angry,” Portsmouth’s director of parking and transportation told the paper.